Ousted Ukraine Envoy Criticizes U.S. State Department Leadership
Ousted Ukraine Envoy Criticizes U.S. State Department Leadership
(Bloomberg) -- Marie Yovanovitch, the former American ambassador to Ukraine who became a key witness in President Donald Trump’s impeachment, faulted what she called a lack of vision among senior State Department leaders and an “amoral, keep ‘em guessing” policy approach.
“We need to be principled, consistent and trustworthy,” Yovanovitch said Wednesday at Georgetown University in Washington, in her first public comments since the impeachment saga ended. “To be blunt, an amoral, keep ‘em guessing foreign policy that substitutes threats, fear and confusion for trust cannot work over the long haul.”
In her speech, Yovanovitch never mentioned Trump’s name. She only once mentioned Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who was repeatedly criticized for failing to publicly stand up for her amid a campaign to oust her from her job spearheaded by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Yovanovitch’s latest comments came after the Trump administration ramped up efforts over the past week to exact retribution on officials the president blames for playing key roles in his impeachment. Last week Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, and Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman of the National Security Council were dismissed from their posts.
Though not singled out, Trump’s presence hovered over the Yovanovitch event. Former Undersecretary of State William Burns cited “deeply undignified times,” and Yovanovitch jokingly referenced Trump’s promise in a July phone call with the president of Ukraine that she would “go through some things.”
“When you go through some things, to fall back on cliches, you have to dig deep a little bit,” she said when Burns asked how she had gotten through the last several months.
Yovanovitch was ousted from her post in Kyiv in May amid a campaign to discredit her by Giuliani, Trump’s son Donald Jr. and other presidential allies who said she was trying to undermine him and block investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
After returning to the U.S., she later became the first person to testify to the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, describing the effort to have her removed and describing a parallel policy process overtaken by Giuliani to get her ousted.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo
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